A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo
“I was standing still. But being near him made me feel like my heart was still hopping.”
This story is a parody of the tale created by the Pence family called, “A Day in the Life of the Vice President.”. In the Pence product, Marlon Bundo, the Pence family pet Bunny, hops through his day admiring his grandpa (the vice president) and proclaiming his patriotism, which is just fine on the surface.
However, the Pence family actively discriminates against the LGBTQ+ community both in voting practices and in supporting anti LGBTQ+ organizations. There’s plenty to google if you aren’t sure about that. It is damaging and awful.
John Oliver and Jill Twiss of the show Last Week Tonight worked together to create “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo” and give a voice to the very community the Pence family wants to silence. It is also just a sweet children’s story about love, acceptance, and civic responsibility.
Marlon and another male bunny Wesley fall in love with each other and want to get married. All their animal friends are happy for them and excited because that’s what friends do. However, an angry stink bug who is “in charge” will not let them get married because according to him, boy bunnies can only marry girl bunnies.
The crew of friends comes together to support Marlon and Wesley because again, that’s what friends do. They handle the stink bug problem in a very democratic way and the wedding is on.
Marlon and Wesley’s love is described by their friends as “different - and that’s ok.” We’d love to remove the language that describes homosexuality as acceptably “different” especially because it compares queer love to being different much like eating your bread crust first or any other quirky trait. The former is not a choice and the later is trivial in comparison.
We are more than ready to have more representation of LGBTQ+ love in and if itself without being defined in comparison to the accepted “norm.” However, we are thankful for the opportunity given to Mr. Bundo to share his own voice. Progress is progress. Love is love.
We love this relatable love story and appreciate the nod to our current political climate. However, there are some who do not and have challenged the book - requesting that it be banned from libraries, the classroom, etc.
A book is typically challenged or banned for reasons like racial issues, encouragement of “damaging” lifestyles, blasphemous dialog, sexual situations or dialog, violence or negativity, presence of witchcraft, (unpopular) religious affiliations, political bias, or age inappropriateness.
We’d like to think that people have the best intentions when claiming a book or an idea is damaging, but unfortunately, it is a slippery slope into censorship and typically works to marginalize and silence diverse perspectives. Historically, banned books are determined to not be harmful over time and are eventually considered classics. The list of these is so long but here are a few:
Harry Potter (all of them)
The Giving Tree
Hop on Pop
The Color Purple
James and The Giant Peach
The Giver
Where the Wild Things Are
Kids should read banned books! Previously banned books are typically relatable, deal with current issues, and touch on social justice or injustice somehow. They may seem edgy now but if history continues to repeat itself, they will become important classics later with endless teachable moments.
We should talk to children about why people want to ban ideas and quiet the stories of others. We should discuss the desire to censor one another and how that can come from all sides of a political, ideological, or religious spectrum. Freedom of speech and personal expression is too important not to talk about.
Some things to think about…
Why do you think people want some stories banned? Should we be allowed to ban books? If so, which ones? If not, why not?
Read through a list of previously banned books with your child. Talk about why they think someone used to think it was not ok to read about.
pictures by EG Keller
